Follow Blog via Email

Tag: serial

Every other hotel room, apartment, and house within a hundred-mile radius of the convention was booked. But somehow, the quaint little cottage with the bright blue door, tucked away in a quiet suburb a few miles from downtown, sat vacant amidst all the hubbub.

“So, what do you think?” Their realtor, Sara, asked after they’d completed the brief, unnecessary, tour. They would have rented it sight unseen. It was this or sleeping in a car outside the convention hall.

“I think it’s too good to be true,” Chris piped up before Meg could answer. “How come this place is vacant?” Sara lowered her face, shifting her eyes to the door.

“Is something wrong? You have to tell us.” Meg urged.

Sara sighed. “This home is where John Darden, that cannibal murderer, had his first kill.”

Sara turned away, shoulders slumped, resigned to the fact she would never unload this tainted property.

“Sara, wait!” Meg called after her. She looked at Chris, her mouth twisting into a hybrid of a grimace and a smile. “We’ll take it.”

So, a not-so-secret revelation about me. I hate routine. Besides work and some religious commitments, I like my life to be distinctly unscheduled. Of course there are some things I have to do on a regular basis, like exercise for example. But I’ll never be that girl that has a set Pilates class every Saturday morning at 7 am. One day I may do Pilates, the next I may tackle a hike through nature with my dog at my side, another I may catch up on some reality TV while I crush an hour on the elliptical.

Besides my faith (and my husband!), the one thing that I’ve been involved with consistently is writing. Short stories and novels specifically. I’m sure, buried somewhere in the corner of a closet somewhere in my parents’ home, there is a bundle of crudely illustrated short stories and novellas dating back to my first grade year. So, I thought to myself as I read today’s blogging 101 assignment, how hard could it be to write something new every week?

There are a few characters and plot points that have been knocking around in my head for a while. Nicollette (aka Nic) a young mom suffering from mental illness, Leelah, her preteen daughter, and Leelah’s best friend, Sunny. Throw in a mysterious death, a betrayal among friends, a few mental breakdowns, and I might have something. It may lead to a novel, maybe it won’t. Those scary commitments again!

So every Saturday morning, I’ll be posting a new story, usually a page out of one of the aforementioned character’s lives. Maybe I’ll come up with a catchy new name for this weekly feature, but so far everything I’ve thought of sounds super-cheesy! I hope you’ll stop by. And as always, I’ll welcome your feedback!